Tag Archive: fit


Powerful supplements against pain & cancer.

Filed under: BB Supplements & Diet — 6 Comments
August 16, 2017

Please click here to watch video “CUTTING EDGE SUPPLEMENTS AGAINST PAIN AND CANCER”

When one reaches over 40 and especially over 50 then there are two major concerns that becomes reality for many, constant daily pain and for some the dreaded cancer!

All is not lost. Well for some it is…when one continue on an unhealthy living path (smoking, drinking, and no exercise) well, then the future unfortunately looks a bit bleak.

But just the other day I met a 92 y/o guy, fit, very mobile, with it! So certain things can be done to limit your risks and enhance your quality life.

However even if you do that, constant pain in joints/muscles seems to be part of any person over 40’s life. And so does the possibility of getting cancer.

We use to think it is just by the “throw of a dice” luck that we do not get cancer. But alas, there might just be a way out! Yes you hear right there just might be a very (!) powerful tool in your arsenal that limits your risk for cancer DRASTICALLY.

The same goes for the constant pain. There are 2 weapons in your arsenal to fight this rather effectively.

But first, let’s lay the basic groundwork.

Alpha Lipoic Acid & Potent Multi Vitamin

Two health supplements that form the basis of good health is a good/potent multi vitamin and ALPHA LIPOIC ACID. The best two choices for a potent multi vitamin is OPTIMEN or ANIMAL PAK.

Take the multi vit as directed on the container (must be after meal).

Why the multi vit – well simple you need to ensure that all the basis are covered concerning vitamins and minerals. Just short of one of these can have real bad consequences. This is very important for the older individual. You CANNOT rely on your food to get everything in.

Alpha Lipoic Acid must be taken at 200mg after morning meal and after evening meal.

Why Alpha Lipoic Acid?

Based on evidence from animal and human studies, lipoic acid offers the following essential health benefits:

  • Reduces oxidative stress in the body via powerful antioxidant activity
  • Improves several components of the metabolic syndrome—a combination of risk factors that increases one’s risk for diabetes
  • Reduces blood pressure
  • Reduces insulin resistance
  • Improves the lipid profile
  • Reduces weight
  • Increases insulin sensitivity
  • Improves diabetic neuropathy
  • Protects against cataract formation
  • Improves visual function in glaucoma
  • Helps prevents retinal cell death when combined with vitamin E in retinitis pigmentosa
  • Reduces brain damage after a stroke
  • Prevents bone loss, possibly through an anti-inflammatory effect
  • Removes toxic metals from the body
  • Reduces frequency and intensity of migraines
  • Improves skin texture

Now on to powerful pain relievers (although Alpha Lipoic Acid also play a role to relief pain).

MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane)

The first one is MSM. Now you might have heard about it. But the truth is, IT DOES WORK. But, not immediately. It is not like popping a pain-pill. It is more like reprogramming your body first before it takes effect.

Some of the most common uses for MSM include treating:

  • chronic joint pain (osteoarthritis, joint inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis)
  • leaky gut syndrome and autoimmune disorders
  • osteoporosis and susceptibility to bone fractures
  • bursitis, tendonitis, the development of scar tissue and other musculoskeletal pains
  • allergies and asthma
  • yeast infections
  • muscle cramps
  • constipation, ulcers, upset stomach, indigestion
  • PMS symptoms (cramps, headaches, water retention, indigestion)
  • stretch marks
  • hair loss
  • skin problems including wrinkles, sun burns (it offers some protection against UV light/wind burn), wounds, cuts, skin abrasions
  • eye inflammation
  • poor circulation
  • high blood pressure
  • fatigue
  • oral infections, toothaches, gum disease/periodontal disease

Three uses that MSM has gained the most notoriety for include: acting like an anti-atherosclerotic (preventing the hardening/thickening of arteries), chemo-preventative compound and natural anti-inflammatory. MSM seems to help the body’s natural free radical-scavenging, which means it lowers oxidative stress as the many ailments that come along with it. It’s an effective anti-inflammatory because it blocks the release of pro-inflammatory mediators and down regulates certain harmful signals sent from the immune system that can affect the entire body.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, based on the most reputable studies conducted so far on MSM — such as a 2006 pilot study that analysed the effects of 6,000 milligrams of MSM taken daily by patients with osteoarthritis — it effectively helps improve symptoms of pain and physical function without any major side effects.

That being said, MSM is capable of causing mild side effects for some people, including indigestion, upset stomach or diarrhoea. It’s also not suitable for people taking blood-thinner medications. If you’re pregnant, you’ll want to speak with a doctor before taking it regularly.

Lastly, MSM does NOT start working immediately. It takes up to 3 months for it to start working effectively. For some up to 6 months. So although there is a considerable lead time…it really is worth investing in the long term in using MSM because it IS a powerful pain suppressant with many other health benefits.

Co Enzyme Q10

Now an even more interesting product, Co Enzyme Q10. [Suggested: 150mg after morning and evening meal]

I have written about this wonder supplement in the past and I consider it the “mother of all supplements”. None comes close to it in effectiveness and health boosting ability. And to top it off, it is a significant pain suppressant. To such an extent that many doctors are now at long last starting to subscribe CQ10 to their migraine patients.

Coenzyme Q10 is a mitochondrial energizer that has shown remarkable effects against common heart ailments and neurological disorders. In just the past year, scientists have uncovered specific mechanisms indicating that CoQ10 may have a role in fighting certain cancers. Most surprising, however, are new studies that show how CoQ10 guards against a wide array of common age-related disorders. In this article, we summarize recent discoveries that significantly broaden the clinical utility of CoQ10.

Guarding the Brain After Cardiac Arrest

People who survive cardiac arrest often suffer irreversible brain damage as a result of the disruption of oxygen to the brain. European researchers recently investigated whether combining CoQ10 with mild hypothermia—a technique proven to reduce neuronal damage and increase survival—might enhance the effects of that treatment.

Forty-nine patients who had suffered cardiac arrest and then received cardiopulmonary resuscitation were randomly selected to receive hypothermia (reduction of body temperature) treatment plus CoQ10 or hypothermia plus placebo. The hypothermia treatment involved the patients being placed on a body-surface-cooling mattress.

The patients were then administered either liquid CoQ10 (250 mg followed by 150 mg three times daily for five days) or a placebo through a nasogastric tube. The remarkable findings showed that three-month survival in the CoQ10 group was 68%, compared to only 29% in the placebo group. Coenzyme Q10 thus helped reduce the death rate from cardiac arrest by an astounding 57%. The researchers also found that 36% of patients in the CoQ10 group had a good neurological outcome at three months, versus only 20% in the placebo group.

Preventing the Onset of Migraine

Migraine headaches are a debilitating, all-too-common affliction. Because mitochondrial dysfunction may play a role in migraines by limiting oxygen metabolism, researchers recently explored the use of CoQ10 in preventing these headaches. Published in the February 2005 issue of Neurology, the research describes a placebo-controlled trial of 42 patients in Switzerland.

Patients who had suffered migraines for a year or more, with two to eight attacks per month, were randomly assigned to receive either 100 mg of CoQ10 or placebo, three times daily. At the end of the three-month trial, the CoQ10-treated group had lower attack frequency and fewer headache days and days with nausea than did the placebo group. The mean number of monthly migraine attacks dropped from 4.4 to 3.2 in the CoQ10 group, compared to a negligible decrease from 4.4 to 4.3 in the placebo group.

In this study, supplemental CoQ10 reduced migraine frequency by 27%.

Slowing Early Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of vision loss in people over 60. With the deterioration of the macula (a tiny cluster of highly specialized cells in the retina) central vision progressively begins to blur. As the disease worsens, central vision loss may increase until it becomes impossible to perform tasks that require detailed vision, such as driving and reading.

In recent years, researchers have focused on how oxidative damage affects age-related macular degeneration. The eye, one of the body’s most metabolically active organs, not only generates an enormous amount of free radicals through normal function, but also incurs additional oxidative damage from ultraviolet radiation and air pollution. In recent trials, the use of antioxidants has been shown to counter age-related macular degeneration. For example, in an 11-center, double-blind clinical trial conducted by the National Eye Institute (a division of the National Institutes of Health), a combination of antioxidants plus zinc slowed macular degeneration progression in people with intermediate or advanced disease by about 25%.

Hungarian scientists are now exploring a metabolic rather than an antioxidant approach to managing macular degeneration. Citing findings that mitochondrial dysfunction might also play a role in the development of the disease, the researchers designed a clinical trial to evaluate intervention in early age-related macular degeneration with a combination of compounds—including CoQ10—that have demonstrated the ability to improve mitochondrial metabolism. The researchers reported results of their double-blind, placebo-controlled trial last year in the journal Opthalmologica. More than 100 patients with early age-related macular degeneration were randomly assigned to receive either two capsules per day containing 200 mg of acetyl-L-carnitine, 780 mg of omega-3 fatty acids, and 20 mg of CoQ10, or capsules containing an equal quantity of soy oil.

At the end of the 12-month treatment period, the researchers found statistically significant improvement in the treatment group as measured by all four parameters of visual function studied. In addition, only one of the 48 patients (2%) in the treatment group showed clinically significant worsening in visual field mean defect (blind spots in the visual field), the primary study endpoint, compared to 9 of 53 patients (17%) in the placebo group. The decrease in drusen—tiny yellow retinal deposits associated with macular degeneration—of the treated eyes was also statistically significant compared to placebo when either the most-affected eyes or the less-affected eyes were considered. In the less-affected eyes, the drusen-covered area decreased by 23% in the treated group, but increased by 13% in the placebo group. These findings suggest that intervention with an appropriate combination of nutrients that affect mitochondrial lipid metabolism may stabilize and even improve visual functions in early age-related macular degeneration.

New Applications in Fighting Cancer

Research on CoQ10 and cancer has focused on two lines of inquiry: CoQ10’s ability to improve immune response and its ability to decrease the cardiotoxicity caused by a common class of anti-cancer chemotherapeutic agents.

Patients with cancer often exhibit low levels of CoQ10,6,7 and researchers have shown that CoQ10 can increase immune response in humans.

Based on these findings, Danish researchers investigated CoQ10’s effects alone and in combination with other nutrients as an adjunctive therapy for breast cancer.

In one case report, the researchers describe three breast cancer patients with metastasized cancer. The women underwent conventional cancer treatment and supplemented with a daily dose of 390 mg of CoQ10. All three women demonstrated tumor regression and decreased incidence of metastasis.

In another study, the same research team investigated 32 high-risk breast cancer patients whose malignancy had spread to the lymph nodes. In addition to conventional therapeutic interventions, this group of patients received a daily combination of nutrients (vitamin C: 2850 mg; vitamin E: 2500 IU; beta-carotene: 32.5 IU; selenium: 387 mcg; and secondary vitamins and minerals), essential fatty acids (1.2 grams of gamma linolenic acid and 3.5 grams of omega-3 fatty acids), and 90 mg of CoQ10. At the end of the 18-month trial, six patients showed apparent partial remission, none of the patients showed signs of additional metastases, and their quality of life improved. None of the patients died during the study period, though four deaths were expected based on the patients’ disease stage. In one of the six patients with partial remission, the dose of CoQ10 in the nutritional protocol was increased to 390 mg. After two months, that patient’s tumor had disappeared completely, as confirmed by a mammogram.

While chemotherapy drugs can be highly effective, their use can also be limited by toxic side effects. This has been noted in the case of anthracyclines, a class of drugs widely used in cancer chemotherapy. These drugs have demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of leukemia, lymphomas, and solid malignancies, and are often used to treat breast cancer, with higher doses yielding greater clinical responses. These higher doses of anthracyclines, however, can produce toxic effects on heart tissue, possibly leading to cardiomyopathy and heart failure that are not responsive to conventional pharmacological interventions. In fact, anthracyclines selectively damage mitochondria in the heart, but not in other organs. Since coenzyme Q10 supports both heart tissue and mitochondria, researchers conducted human trials to determine whether CoQ10 might prevent cardiotoxicity during the administration of anthracyclines.

Two recent review articles addressed CoQ10’s potential as an adjunctive therapy during chemotherapy with anthracyclines. Writing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers summarized five reviewed studies in which CoQ10 was given along with anthracyclines. They report that in three of the studies that measured heart rhythm, patients who received CoQ10 showed favorable changes suggesting that CoQ10 might have a stabilizing effect on the heart. They also note that supplementation did not interfere with anthracycline treatment, and that no adverse effects were reported in any of the trials. The authors concluded that although coenzyme Q10 demonstrates potential for reducing cardiotoxicity, larger and more rigorous investigations are needed.

Slowing Neurodegenerative Disease Progression

Many investigators have conducted preclinical studies examining how oxidative stress and impaired mitochondrial function may contribute to neuronal cell death, a characteristic of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. For example, a recent journal article in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology reported on the effects of the herbicide paraquat on neuronal cell death in the laboratory. The researchers found that this toxic chemical damaged mitochondria and increased free radical production, eventually resulting in the death of neuronal cells. Pretreatment of the cell cultures with CoQ10, however, inhibited both mitochondrial dysfunction and free radical generation. The researchers postulated that coenzyme Q10 may prove useful in preventing and treating neurodegenerative conditions related to environmental toxins.

While published research on the use of CoQ10 in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease has been limited to preclinical studies, investigations of CoQ10 and Parkinson’s disease have moved into clinical trials, including randomized controlled studies. This work has been led by Clifford Shults, MD, professor of neurosciences at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. In Parkinson’s disease, brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine progressively die. Research in animals has shown that CoQ10 can protect the substantia nigra, the area of the brain where these cells reside. Studies by Dr. Shults and others have shown that mitochondrial dysfunction and diminished mitochondrial CoQ10 levels frequently occur in Parkinson’s sufferers.

With funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders (a division of the National Institutes of Health), Dr. Shults and his colleagues undertook the first double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial of CoQ10 in patients with early untreated Parkinson’s disease. In this phase II, dose-finding study, 80 patients were randomly assigned to receive one of three different CoQ10 doses (300 mg/day, 600 mg/day, or 1200 mg/day) with vitamin E, or a placebo containing vitamin E alone. The patients were followed for 16 months or until the participants required levodopa, a standard drug treatment for managing disease symptoms.

The results, reported in the Archives of Neurology, showed that patients who received the largest dose of CoQ10 (1200 mg/day) had 44% less decline in mental function, movement, and ability to carry out activities of daily living than those who received the placebo.19 Patients who received CoQ10 doses of 300 mg/day and 600 mg/day also showed some slowing in decline compared to the placebo group, but not as much as those who took the highest dose. The authors concluded that CoQ10 was safe and well tolerated at doses up to 1200 mg/day.

A clinical trial has also been undertaken in patients with Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative genetic disorder. This trial, conducted by the Huntington Study Group, randomly assigned 347 patients with Huntington’s disease to receive CoQ10 at 600 mg/day, remacemide hydrochloride at 600 mg/day, a combination of both, or placebo. Over the 30-month trial, the CoQ10 treated patients showed a 13% decrease in overall functional decline and beneficial trends in some secondary measures. However, the difference between the CoQ10 group and the other groups did not reach statistical significance.

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METFORMIN

Now on to the last miracle supplement. Metformin [suggested 500mg daily]

This is actually not a supplement but a prescribed medicine for diabetics. However it seems to do much more than just treating diabetics and all of it is good, very good news!

Let me give you the rundown…

[From the US National cancer institute]

“In 1957, the first results from a clinical trial of the diabetes drug metformin in patients were published. Yet, it would take nearly 40 years for the drug to be approved in the United States as a treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Now researchers want to know whether this decades-old drug may have additional uses in another disease—cancer. Based on findings from a number of large epidemiologic studies and extensive laboratory research, metformin is being tested in clinical trials not only as a treatment for cancer, but as a way to prevent it in people at increased risk, including cancer survivors who have a higher risk of a second primary cancer.

Numerous early-stage clinical trials are currently under way to investigate metformin’s potential to prevent an array of cancers, including colorectal, prostate, endometrial, and breast cancer. Several of these trials are being funded by NCI’s Consortia for Early Phase Prevention Trials. And NCI is collaborating with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to study participants from the landmark clinical trial, the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), to investigate metformin’s impact on cancer incidence.

Some of the early-phase prevention trials of metformin are enrolling participants who are at increased risk for cancer and who are obese, have elevated glucose or insulin levels, or have other conditions that put them at risk for diabetes.

“With the obesity epidemic, these studies are applicable to a substantial portion of the U.S. population and, increasingly, of the world population,” said Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, PhD, MPH, of NCI’s Division of Cancer Prevention.

Expanding the Data Pool

Much of the human data on metformin and cancer has come from epidemiologic studies of people with diabetes. In many, though not all, of these studies, people with diabetes who were assigned to take metformin had a lower incidence of cancer than those taking other diabetes drugs.

Completed in 2002, the original DPP enrolled more than 3,200 people at increased risk of developing diabetes and randomly assigned them to one of three groups: one group received metformin, one took part in an intensive diet and physical activity program, and one received a placebo. Participants in the metformin arm had a substantially lower risk of developing diabetes than the general population; participants in the exercise and diet regimen fared even better.

With NCI’s involvement, the program’s extension, called the DPP Outcomes Study, will allow investigators to document cancer incidence and death among study participants. Those observations should provide some of the strongest data available to date on metformin’s anticancer effects in people without diabetes, explained Dr. Heckman-Stoddard. The first data on cancer outcomes in study participants, which will be based on 15 years of follow-up, should be available in 2014.

“Once we have that data, there are a host of other questions we can ask,” she said. For example, Dr. Heckman-Stoddard and her colleagues plan to study metformin’s impact on certain blood biomarkers that studies have suggested are associated with cancer risk. They will also study the drug’s mechanism of action—that is, how metformin may work to prevent changes in cells that can lead to cancer.

For Prevention, Small Biomarker-Driven Trials

The smaller prevention trials being conducted are very different from the DPP Outcomes Study. These trials are not designed to determine whether metformin prevents cancer. Prevention trials must generally have a large number of participants and span many years to show whether a drug or some other intervention reduces the risk of cancer.

Instead, these short, 3- to 6-month trials are investigating whether the drug has an effect on specific proteins and/or signaling pathways that have been implicated in cancer development and that laboratory studies have shown are affected by metformin.

At the University of California, Irvine Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, for example, Jason Zell, DO, MPH, is leading an early-phase clinical trial that is testing metformin’s effect on the mTOR signaling pathway in obese people who have previously had precancerous growths removed from their colons.

Numerous studies have implicated the mTOR pathway as an integral hub in cancer development and progression, and laboratory studies have consistently shown that metformin can blunt mTOR signaling.

“The key point of the trial is to get at the mechanisms of action … to see if metformin is behaving in the expected manner” based on the lab findings, Dr. Zell explained.

Numerous early-stage clinical trials are currently under way to investigate metformin’s potential to prevent an array of cancers, including colorectal, prostate, endometrial, and breast cancer.

Dr. Zell and his colleagues chose to study obese patients “because of the interesting side-effect profile of metformin, which can include weight loss,” meaning it may not be suitable for underweight, nondiabetic individuals, he continued.

If this first trial shows that metformin is having the expected effects on mTOR signaling, the next trial would be similar but would measure a clinical outcome, such as whether metformin decreases the number of colorectal polyps that return.

A phase II trial at the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center is testing metformin’s effects on a host of biomarkers in postmenopausal breast cancer survivors who are obese.

Funded by NCI’s Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) program, the trial, called Reach for HealthExit Disclaimer, will involve treatment with metformin alone and in combination with an exercise program. The study will examine the effect of 6 months of metformin treatment, with or without exercise, on a host of biomarkers associated with cancer risk. The change in biomarker measurements before and after treatment will be compiled into a score that predicts the risk of dying from breast cancer.

This is all part of the trial’s novel “biomarker bridge” design, the lead investigator, Ruth Patterson, PhD, explained. The biomarkers and the risk score are being derived from an analysis of tissue samples collected as part of an NCI-supported phase III trial called the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) study. This study found that a diet low in fat and high in fruits and vegetables did not reduce the risk of cancer returning in survivors of early-stage breast cancer compared with survivors who maintained their normal diet. Researchers have continued to follow the health of WHEL participants to document their health outcomes, including death from breast cancer.

“The WHEL trial is over, and we have a freezer full of blood samples, and we know participants’ breast cancer recurrences, mortality, and other outcomes,” Dr. Patterson said. “So we’re hooking together a short-term trial with a long-term cohort study by means of blood biomarkers.”

The Dose Is the Question

Most of the cancer clinical trials of metformin use the same doses typically used to treat diabetes. That makes sense, because all of the epidemiologic data suggesting a cancer benefit came from studies that used those doses, said Michael Pollak, MD, of McGill University in Montreal, who has extensively studied metformin and its anticancer potential.

“We already know that those doses are safe, so why not study them?” Dr. Pollak continued. “But then you have to realize that virtually all of the lab studies [of metformin] have been done using drug concentrations that are as much as 100-fold higher than those found in the serum of diabetic patients. So the lab studies do not directly justify the clinical trials that are using conventional antidiabetic doses.”

With the obesity epidemic, these studies are applicable to a substantial portion of the U.S. population and, increasingly, of the world population.

—Dr. Brandy Heckman-Stoddard

Although laboratory studies suggest that larger doses of metformin “deserve study” for cancer treatment, Dr. Pollak noted that “for cancer prevention, we can only consider the hypothesis that the antidiabetic dose, or even lower doses, will be clinically useful.”

Dr. Zell agreed. “In the realm of cancer prevention, where side effects are less acceptable than they are in the realm of cancer treatment, the conventional dose for treating diabetes or something close to it may be the limit.

“I don’t imagine that prevention researchers will be looking to use [significantly larger] doses of metformin,” he continued. “In a healthy population, even a low risk of side effects could be extraordinary when applied to a larger population…. That’s why trials like ours are important. At the end of this 12-week intervention, we’ll have a good idea of whether the standard dose of metformin can affect cancer signaling pathways.”

Early Days

It’s still far too early to tell whether there is any future for metformin as a means of preventing or treating cancer, several researchers said.

Despite the very strong epidemiological evidence, there’s a chance that, even if metformin has some ability to prevent cancer, its efficacy may be limited to just several cancer types, Dr. Pollak noted. For example, metformin is not absorbed very well by the body and is absorbed differently by different tissues, he explained, which could limit how effective it might be against particular cancers.

Although the drug in its current form has certain limitations, some investigators are working on developing more potent derivatives of metformin. At the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, for example, Italian and U.S. researchers reported that several metformin derivatives they had developed potently blocked the growth of breast cancer cells in the laboratory, including cell lines of triple-negative breast cancer, and caused the cells to die.

To be used for cancer prevention, any metformin derivative would have to be safe, with few side effects, Dr. Heckman-Stoddard stressed. As for the original metformin formulation, she added, current trials should help to map the way forward for its use in prevention.

“It’s important that we identify the right populations in which this is most likely to be an effective agent,” said Dr. Heckman-Stoddard. “We need to look at the evidence from all of these early-phase trials as a whole,” she continued, including examining the population groups exhibiting the strongest suggestions of efficacy “so we can design efficient phase III trials.”

Examples of Clinical Trials Testing Metformin for Cancer Prevention

Trial Phase Measured Endpoints Sponsor
Exercise and Metformin in Colorectal Cancer Survivors II Insulin levels and other biomarkers Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
An Endometrial Cancer Chemoprevention Study of Metformin [and Lifestyle Intervention] III Biomarkers in the endometrium and insulin levels University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Metformin as a Chemoprevention Agent in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer II Progression of potentially precancerous bronchial lesions (secondary endpoint) in patients who have undergone surgery for lung cancer Mayo Clinic
Prostate Cancer Active Surveillance Metformin Trial II Progression of prostate cancer in men undergoing active surveillance for low-risk disease University Health Network, Toronto
Metformin Hydrochloride as Chemoprevention in Patients with Barrett Esophagus II Changes in the levels of the signaling pathway protein pS6K1, thought to play important role in progression to esophageal cancer Mayo Clinic”

 

The bottom line is that Metformin has already proven to be a powerful tool against some of the most common cancers.

Here is a article by Medscape on whether everyone should be taking Metformin due to it’s incredible benefits: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/835676

 

WANT A HOLISTIC TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM FULLY CUSTOMIZED?  The program I am following for the past 6 years (age 46 to 52), available now fully customised on all levels. before-and-after-dec2016Every little secret, every hard-earned practical fact, every scientific study that actually support the (very) few supplements between all the thousand ridiculous advertisement claims have been filtered en incorporated into one system that MAKES A DIFFERENCE click here: 

https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets/

 

Metformin has been proven to be very safe even for non-diabetics. But since it is a prescription drug you will have to twist your doctor’s finger to get a prescription. Ask him to look at the anti-cancer and weight-loss properties of Metformin…this might change his mind.

So here you have it – 5 powerfull tools in your arsenal for good health, anti pain and anti cancer. As the Vulcan say “Life long and prosper!”

Happy Training

Gert Louw

Gert Louw video cover

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Best FREE body transformation system available for all ages

Filed under: BB Supplements & Diet, BB Training & Exercises, Be MOTIVATED! — Leave a comment
April 22, 2017

Here is my latest video I just finished. It discuss the best FREE body transformation system out there available. Those of you that dreamed of that new body…well, now is your chance! MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

This video will take you step by step through the 4 major detailed aspects that must be in place:

  1. Structure of attack
  2. Diet & Lifestyle (for printout versions of diet: https://gertlouw.com/2014/08/16/cutting-diet-challenges/ )
  3. Training system
  4. Bodybuilding & health supplements required

Click here to watch the video “THE BEST FREE BODY TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM AVAILABLE”

If you want my more advanced system, fully customised for your body, situation and goals, click here: gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets

Happy training! Cheers…
Gert Louw

Gert Louw dbicep

 

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Sex, lust and temptations!

Filed under: Be MOTIVATED! — 41 Comments
January 9, 2017

Click here to watch video: “SEX, LUST & TEMPTATIONS OF A MUSCLED GUY”

 

Quite a few guys asked me what was the biggest impact on my life after I achieved this muscled physique and healthy living success.

Before and after DEC2016.JPG

Some things changed, like suddenly more people are friendly with you, people have more respect when talking to you and yes, sure…looks like wife loves me more!

But the biggest problem that came with the whole deal revolves around sex, lust and temptation. I had many, many(!) guys, girls, and couples (married and otherwise) that offered me in no uncertain terms…sex. Yes, you heard right, even married couples. And some of these people are incredibly attractive!

Now, I am no-one special. I am certain that any muscle guy or fitness girl, having a high internet visibility, have this problem to contend with. The people making the offers don’t care about what you stand for. That is irrelevant to them.

I’ve been offered gifts, large sums of money and even people that wanted to travel from another continent just to have sex…

Gert Louw LEGS CB

Now, believe me I am no “Amish” when it comes to sex. I LOVE sex even some kinky stuff! BUT I have a family…a loving, 100% loyal, wife and a son looking up to me as the leader of the family showing him how a man and a father must live. When I am 80 y/o, I still want to too be able to lovingly look into my wife’s eyes and give her a passionate kiss without having to feel guilty about cheating her and living a life devoid of integrity.

Sure the world reckons what others don’t know won’t hurt or harm them and thus they just do whatever pleases them. Me, on the other hand is not using the world as my moral compass but my moral compass is Jesus Christ. Every evening I have to face God and He gives me my moral guidance.

For me ignoring my rules guiding my integrity is a path of self-destruction. I lose all love for myself and literally start to hate myself. This path always leads to severe depressive states and can easily result in suicide. Believe me I know what I am talking about, I’ve been there. Long ago this was my life and it was a worthless life. After nearly dying at 40 my appreciation and love for life changed me.

WANT MY ADVANCED SYSTEM FULLY CUSTOMIZED?  The system I am following for the past 6 years (age 46 to 52), available now fully customised on all levels, just for you. Every little secret, every hard-earned practical fact, every scientific study that actually support the (very) few supplements between all the thousand ridiculous advertisement claims have been filtered en incorporated into one system that MAKES A DIFFERENCE click here: https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets/

It is not about what the other person do not know…it is about what I know! Not having self-respect is a sickness of our time…and the resultant symptom is free sex around every corner leading a life devoid of integrity.

Am I immune, to these temptations? Certainly not. EVEN Adam and Eve stumbled with forbidden fruit.

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If I ever have one prayer request for my fellow Christians, this will be it. Pray that I will be strengthened to keep leading a life of integrity.

Sometimes this can become so bad that I wondered if it was at all worth it. But then I will get this email from someone I have never met and do not know…about how my life and testimonies literally saved him from a path of destruction and how he turn his/her life around…all because of me. And you know what? This makes it a 1000 times worth over. There is no more incredible feeling when someone tells you, because of you, what you stand for and what you said, because of your life and integrity…I was saved!

Wish you all a blessed 2017

Gert Louw

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Incredible LIFE inspiration at age 52

Filed under: Be MOTIVATED! — 4 Comments
September 3, 2016

Hi guys and girls, Gert Louw from Cape Town.

Every year just after my birthday it is sort of a tradition for me to do a flexing and inspirational video.

This year it was my 52nd birthday.

So here is the video just after my birthday:

Click here to view video “Life INSPIRATION at age 52”

 

With this video I want to inspire a little.

Neither your age, nor your health should ever (!) stand in your way.

Now, most of you know by now that 12 years ago I nearly died and doctors did not give me any good news. But with faith I moved forward and apply healthy living on all levels and also did some house cleaning and moving closer to God ( I am a follower of Jesus Christ).

Obviously it was a long and hard road and the body took long to respond to this healthy living but the wheel did turn and it is keeping on turning as a result.

Now, I am not naïve in thinking everyone with serious health issues can and will turn around like I did, but what I do believe is that with faith in God and by living very healthy, one CAN make a huge difference. Obviously you need your doctor’s approval to embark on such a journey.

But, let me share with you the core of my healthy living

Gert Louw face2

 

My training program is as follows:

  • Mondays – Chest, Biceps and abs
  • Tuesdays – Shoulders, Traps and calves
  • Wednesdays – rest
  • Thursdays – Back, triceps and abs
  • Fridays – Legs, upper pecs and calves
  • Saturdays & Sundays – rest

 

My supplement regime

Health supplements:

  • ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid)
  • CQ10 (Co Enzyme Q10)
  • Omega 3+6
  • Strong Multi Vitamin
  • Slow release Vit C

Muscle building supplements:

  • Whey protein powder
  • L-Glutamine
  • BCAA

 

How do I structure my training?

I do a 3-months Cutting phase with a very specific cutting phase diet and training with lighter weights at a higher rep range followed by 1 week rest and then a 3-month building phase with a very specific building phase diet and training with heavier weights to absolute muscle failure at lower reps (about 8 reps per set) followed by 1 week rest and the repeat.

This allow me to build muscle but also to recover the strained tendons and joints.

 

About my diets

I make use of one of the top fitness nutritionists in the field (BERNADETTE BEYER) to work out my diets for each phase according to my bodytype and goals. This is the crucial part of your success and without a very focussed diet there will be no success.

My blog contains a LOT of info for free that can help you through all these processes.

But for those interested, I also offer my exact training/supplem and diet system via the ADVANCED SYSTEM II (option E). The same nutritionist I use will also work out your diet solution and I myself attend to working out your training and supplement attack based. If you want to signup, just choose option E via the following link: https://gertlouw.com/contact-me

Now, everyone…happy training!

Cheers

Gert Louw

Gert Louw REACH FOR THE STARS small

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Cheat and still win with your diet

Filed under: BB Supplements & Diet, Be MOTIVATED! — 2 Comments
June 8, 2016

Cheat and still win with your diet!

Click here to view video “CHEAT & STILL WIN WITH YOUR DIET“

Now this is probably what everyone wants to hear – lol! BUT, the truth is, there are methods to cheat and still get to the top!

Life is not meant to be without a dessert once on a while…and I am talking Baked Chocolate Fondant with oozing real sweet chocolate out if it’s center with ice cream (real ! ice cream) liberally used. The same goes for the odd glass of wine/whiskey or beer or whatever blows your skirt up, even a chocolate!

A certain balance needs to be applied to stay sane with anything in life. I’ve just done a 3 weeks severe cutting diet, sticking 100% to it…and, it’s was hell! The more you are going to disallow yourself a treat once in a while, the bigger the chance that your diet will fail completely in the end. You would just say…”I had enough”. And you know what? I have big compassion for that…so let’s have a look here how (!) you can cheat regularly without crashing your diet and keep yourself sane and focused to stick 98% to your diet.

Sundays to Fridays – sorry that (!) is where you stick 100% to your diet.

Get yourself some sugarless, carb less, fat free sweets. Do some searching and buy those that have as little calories as possible…like below 10! Then during the Sunday to Friday period…pop a few (3-4) of those during the day when you feel the urge to treat yourself a bit. Apart from that – nothing else.

The key is always to eat all your regular meals and drink all your water (2L-4L)…THAT is what keeps you full and keep the urges to eat wrong away.

Obviously, if you are at your target body fat then some different rules apply. Then you are allowed 2 -3 cheats evenly spaced out during the week. But for this documents purpose, let’s assume we are dealing with all those that are still far from the target body fat levels.

Your cheat should be left for a weekend day…when you are less stressed, more relaxed and doing something you like. This cheat will go to great lengths to make you not feeling deprived of some great things and food in life. Even if you don’t feel like a cheat, maybe it is a good idea…simply to help you stay balanced and not feeling deprived later on in the week.

Gert Louw LEGS CB

Now, “HOW?” should you cheat?

There can only be one cheat and that cheat can only be once per day per week on just 1 day of the week!

First you eat the diet as normal for that day as specified.

Let’s look at the next cheat scenario’s:

1.       Ice Cream cheat / Soft drink / dessert cheat / potato crisps – once anytime during day. Then for 2 of your meals for the day cut out carbs completely. One small meals carbs and one larger meals carbs.

2.       Chocolate cheat 150g – anytime during day. The same as above:  For 2 of your meals for the day cut out carbs completely. One small meals carbs and one larger meals carbs.

3.       Alcohol cheat (500ml equivalent wine) – anytime during day. Usually late afternoon or evening you will use this cheat. So for the evening meal cut out carbs completely and ONLY clean fatless meat and salad…no sauces, no carbs, nothing else! And definitely no dessert. If you want dessert, then no wine! One or the other… [Note: be very careful with alcohol. It is the key reason why men, especially older men, struggle to loose fat around the tummy and have a bloated look to the tummy. Best is to cut alcohol COMPLETELY out and have other types of cheats.]

 

Remember that with any of the above cheats it will set you back 24 to 48 hours before your body reverted to the level before you cheated and only then will it be able to start losing fat again. So even though you have cheated it is STILL very much possible to loose fat for the week, but only within above rules.

 

I strongly believe that the only winning approach is a balanced approach. That keeps you focused and you feel like “life” is not deprived of you. Part of this balance is to cheat on a weekly basis with your diet by applying above wisdom!

 

Wish you all happy dieting and a great training week!
Gert Louw

http://www.gertlouw.com

Gert Louw green small

 

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Transforming your body STEP-BY-STEP

Filed under: BB Supplements & Diet, BB Training & Exercises, Be MOTIVATED! — 7 Comments
May 26, 2016

In all my coaching systems and many articles on my site, I regularly refer to the process of transforming into a wow physique by “climbing a ladder step by step”.

Facebook profil

Here I want to explain as to WHAT exactly I mean by that.

Now, many people think they are starting to climb the ladder and start transforming, and they actually start doing rather great, but then stuff starts happening…things like: getting sick regularly, tendon/joint injury or other serious injury or they lose hope because they just cannot put on muscle no matter how hard they train and some just cannot lose fat no matter how hard they diet.

This is when the train stops and they get off the ladder.

Not because it was not possible but because they LACK knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE in terms off:

  1. You CANNOT lose fat if the calories are too low…then your body enters famine mode and you WILL lose all your hard earned muscle first before it uses the fat – no matter how HARD you train! There is a sweet spot with calories where the body use fat for energy and keep muscles safe. You need to find it. (In my SYSTEMS I and II this is covered).
  2. You CANNOT build muscle if: caloric intake too low, body fat too low or you do too much cardio!
  3. You WILL get sick regularly if you continue pounding your body week after week, month after month, in the wrong fashion and you do not use certain basic health supporting supplements.
  4. You WILL run into serious tendon and joint issues if you do not alternate every 3 months between BUILDING and CUTTING phases to allow healing and strengthening.

All of these are covered in detail in my COACHING SYSTEMS (https://gertlouw.com/contact-me), but the bottom line which brings all these together are a continuous alternating between a 3 month CUTTING PHASE and a 3 monthly BUILDING phase.

Each Phase has its own specific training methodology and specific type diet.

The two phases are vastly different and by continuously alternating between them, you allow your body every 3 months to go through a process off:

  1. Loosing max fat while protecting muscles in Cutting Phase.
  2. Building max muscle at slightly higher body fat levels in the Building Phase.
  3. Allowing your body to be fed correctly for your exact goal and training methodology for each phase.
  4. Allowing tendons and joints to strengthen and recover regularly in Cutting Phase.
  5. Allowing the body a balanced and healthy approach preventing sickness and injury by not overtraining and stressing the body and immune system.

These 2 phases hold the KEY to climbing the ladder. One step on the ladder = 1 BP (Building phase) + 1 CP (Cutting Phase). After each step you will be able to see a significant difference in shape and size. THIS is how you climb up the ladder.

Look at the following graph showing the BODY FAT variation during the phases

This is what your body fat will do when sticking to my SYSTEM I or II training that incorporates these principles (BP = Building Phase, CP = Cutting Phase):

Climing the ladder BODYFAT

Every BP1 + CP1 covers a 6 month period. At the end of each of the cutting phases your body fat is lower and lower till typically after a 3 year period you reach crazy levels like 5% body fat.

 

Let’s look what your muscle size will do when alternating between the phases:

Climing the ladder MUSCLE MASS

At the end of each of the cutting phases your body weight is higher than after the previous cutting phase. That COUPLED with the fact that the body fat is lower after each Cutting Phase compared to the previous cutting phase makes a HUGE difference on how the body looks and the amount of lean mass you are carrying.

THIS (!) is how you climb the ladder…not after one cutting phase or one building phase but after various of these phases. Stopping with the process simply mean you stop climbing the ladder.

Simply put – After each Building Phase your muscle weight is higher at lower body fat levels, and during the Cutting Phase you show your results, keeping that muscles safe and dropping the body fat on each Cutting Phase lower and lower than in the previous Cutting Phases until after a few years you look back and say…”WOW!”

Wish you all happy training!

Cheers – Gert Louw

gert louw B&A

 

 

 

 

 

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Acquiring the winning mindset to transform your body.

Filed under: Be MOTIVATED! — 6 Comments
March 31, 2016

 

Click here to watch video “How to get a winning mindset for a WOW transformation?”

Nearly all of us have this dream to be the best we can be. Too have a great, ripped, muscled physique that impresses and exudes health, wealth and happiness. We seemed to have been programmed with this urge and I believe that to be true…we are created in the image of God.

But back to reality, life is difficult. Work, school, studying, marriage, family, kids, meetings and a rat race trying to stay ahead and on top.

I have a blueprint transformation system developed to create the environment for growth and fat loss…have a look here:  https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets/

We easily make decisions at the beginning of a new year or after being inspired by someone to reach for that dream body we so much want.

And sure, that is the first and most important step each of us have to take on the road to success BUT, and this is a very big BUT, 99% of those taking this first step have not acquired and mastered the mindset that needs to be in place to push through to reach goal and beyond.

Gert Louw AGULHAS

Let’s look at important aspects of this mindset that must be in place before the journey starts:

 

IT WILL HURT

Do not think for one moment reaching a dream body is without pain. LIFE IS PAIN! You will never ever be in a situation where you will not experience some form of physical or emotional/other pain. Being alive, means that you WILL experience pain. The whole idea is to minimize, control and use this pain to your advantage. To reach your dream physique you will be working out intensely. This will cause muscle pain and resultant muscle growth. Learn to LOVE this pain…this is a signal that you are stimulating your body for growth. There might be injury on your path. This is part of any sport environment. Learn to work around it and do NOT let it derail your efforts. For example: When you have a knee injury, nothing stops you from concentrating on the upper body workouts until it is healed. Even with back injuries under guidance you can still workout safely.

 

IT WILL TAKE TIME

The Hollywood and Western Culture has programmed us to want immediate results and satisfaction. Get that out of your mind very quickly. That is the single biggest reason why people do not push through. We want it and we want it now and if it does not happen within a month or two then why bother. I got one thing to tell you – “NOTHING, BUT NOTHING IN LIFE THAT IS REALLY WORTH IT COMES EASY.” Accept that. A dream body is not designed in months , not even in years for some. It took me 11 years to get to the best shape of my life. Month after month there are small differences and they add up to significant differences on yearly basis and wow differences every few years. You cannot get to the top of a ladder without climbing the steps…only by going up step by step do you get to the top. Sure there are shortcuts people try to take but nothing this side of anabolic steroids can and ever will produce magic results (even with anabolics it takes time and a very focused approach and is NOT an overnight process!). Do NOT believe marketing advertising of supplements. 99% of what is printed and claimed is complete and utter lies.

 

IT WILL REQUIRE DEDICATION

There is no easy way to say this…You will need to be at gym 4-5 days a week, you will need to motivate yourself for intense workouts (and learn to love it!), you will need to make extreme effort with your diet preparing the food the day before, you will need to have 100% dedication to your supplement regime. This is what it will take.

 

YOU WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE

Right now you are probably hanging out with your mates every evening. In future you will have to cut social time to the bare minimum. Your time and focus will now be in a new environment. You need to brace yourself for a total lifestyle change – friends, socializing, eating habits, time spend and more.

Having family requirements make it more challenging but not impossible. In fact your life partner and kids will see the changes and your dedication and that will instill in them even greater respect for you. You will lead now by example and what you are showing them is the best possible example a father can show to his children…that if you want something badly in life, you have to put in the effort and dedication to get there, you will show them everything worth something in life comes with great effort and dedication.

Many people also ask me how I bring my faith in Jesus and my fitness lifestyle together. They see a good looking shredded, muscled guy and struggle to bring faith and this lifestyle in the same environment. I find it very easy and actually find that my dedication to the fitness lifestyle brings me closer to God because it teaches me dedication and discipline. For me Jesus Christ is in the center of everything I do. I never cut Him out of anything and I am not shy to give Him the credit for what I’ve reached. Even before I sometimes do a heavy set…I will quickly close my eyes for strength from my Lord. I don’t care what people say or think around me…I am not doing this for them…I am doing this for me.

 

THERE WILL BE TEMPTATION

Be under no misconception…there will be many reasons for giving up. This is the exact reason why so few reach success. You will be hungry, you will miss out on drink dates with friends, you might even have to change friends, your body will ache and pain and there will be days that you feel drained and without focus. Those are the days that you just have to PUSH THROUGH and JUST DO IT. Just get yourself to gym and just do what you need to do. Steer clear from foods that tempt you. Do NOT keep those foods in your house. Temptation is what will separate the men from the boys.

Never use work-pressure or deadlines as an excuse. You HAVE to find your solutions around that. If it means early morning or late evening training, so be it. NEVER use the excuse “but I cannot stick to the meals because I do not have time at work to eat.” It takes you 2 min to pour water in a shaker, put in the protein powder and shake and drink it…2 minutes, nothing more!

This especially is one of the key areas where I found my faith helps me a lot to stay focused.

 

The above is just some of the key areas for the right mindset, but I believe these are the most important.

Master them and you WILL reach success.

Success is within each of us but so is failure as well.

You have been given the ability to reach to the stars and be everything God ever meant you to be…DO NOT LET THIS WONDERFULL GIFT PASS YOU BY.

 

I wish you success on your journey.

Be blessed

Gert Louw

TRANSFORMATION COACHING – more info here:  https://gertlouw.com/contact-me/

Gert Louw COACHING

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Training for size with weak wrists

Filed under: BB Training & Exercises — Leave a comment
March 7, 2016

Although even some young bodybuilders struggle with weak wrists it is most frequently the domain of the over 40 lifter.

The wrist simply do not have the power and ability to support the weight being lifted anymore. This could become a huge problem for a person in quest for size, because the key ingredient for growth is through intense, heavy weight lifting regularly to the point of failure.

I am one such person that struggles with weak wrists. I simply cannot hold the size weight required to stimulate enough growth. But I am definitely not going to call it game over…I made plans. And it is MUCH easier than most people think.

The following video is rather crucial to watch to fully understand exactly what and how I am doing it.

Click here to view video “Training for size with weak wrists”

 

Let me try to explain:

  1. You must get a wrist supporting rubber grabbing “glove”, like the one showed in the video.
  2. To make sure that the part that folds over the wrist is secure and do not come loose while engaged in heavy lifting, duck tape must be used as per instruction in the video. (Tape it on both wrists securing the part that folds over.)
  3. With every (!) weight you lift (dumbbells & barbels, pullups, seated rows for back and especially shrugs) the rubber part of the glove must be wrapped around the weight where your hand would go and then your hand must go over the rubber part in the reverse position (see video for exact method).
  4. This would alleviate the pressure on the wrist easily by up to 80%.
  5. When performing bench presses use the overhand position with the thumb in the same direction as all the other fingers. Let the weight of the bar rests on the lower part of just the palm of your hand so that no pressure is applied on the wrist. Do not clasp the thumb the other way around the bar. This put undue pressure on the wrist.

The above sounds simple, but I guarantee you that it will enhance your ability GREATLY to lift serious weights again without hurting the wrists and put you straight back into growth territory.

This is the way I’ve been lifting for the last 5 years and now at close to 52 I am in the best shape of my life.

Hope this help guys…be wise and GROW!

 

Those interested in the online transformation coaching I provide – check here: https://gertlouw.com/contact-me/

 

Gert Louw

http://www.gertlouw.com

gert2b

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Walking by faith

Filed under: Be MOTIVATED!, SURVIVAL TIPS for Cancer/Fibromyalgia/HIV+ — 25 Comments
March 4, 2016

Walking by faith – Everyone knows by now there are a deeper side to me and a life altering back story.

But I have never really told my story about my walk in faith.

I am opening my heart here and I know there are risks…because the world is not always a good place to lay your heart bare. But this is the time to do it…my walk in faith has brought me to this point where I feel compelled to share.

So those that want to know about a story of pain, hope, miracles and LIFE, read on.

As many of you know, 11 years ago (at age 40) I was lying on my “deathbed” in hospital. At one point no blood pressure and heartbeat and ready to die. A brutal attack and mutilation left me with a broken soul and the will to live has left me, my heart was filled with darkness and pain which I could not carry anymore.

Me 2 months after hospital:

rotaste1

 

Then the unexpected happened. While I was lying in my hospital bed, weak and not expecting anything but death, I heard a voice, God’s voice. The voice was clear…”Gert, I am offering you life…I have a plan for you. You must choose…”

I cannot put in words that moment…I experienced an incredible beauty, softness, kindness, pureness,  holiness, love and I saw LIFE…and in that moment my life changed. I was heartbroken, I was weak and I spend a lot of time in conversation with God over the next few days lying in my bed. I was soooo close to choosing death…but this unexpected experience showed me LIFE and I made my choice.

Sure, before this I knew about God and I knew the Bible. But this changed my world. Suddenly God was not just in a book anymore but He was more real to me than this world around me. And for just that brief moment I felt the touch of God…and I was utterly overwhelmed and unprepared.

Two weeks in hospital and I was strong enough to leave. Prognosis not good…some doctors gave me a couple of years. But it was not in their hands, I chose life and God was in control.

I was a changed man…but, the pain and darkness in my heart of what happened was not over. The weakness I have, is that I put a lid on things and push it deep down, trying to bury it…never really dealing with it.

My walk in faith deepened over the next years.

Now at 51 I am a living miracle of God. The body is still broken. Kidneys functioning at 50%, struggling with my liver, and that is just the tip of the iceberg with my serious health problems. But that is insignificant for God…look at me…with my severe health issues and being expected to be long dead by now, God has turned this around to the extend that I am looking the healthiest and fittest I ever did in my life. For Him, NOTHING is impossible.  He is in control, not the doctors, not me, not medical science.

Me, today…4 months away from 52:

gert

 

Now this all sound incredible and it is, but my world was about to be rocked again. God knew that the pain and darkness that I am trying to bury needs to be addressed. Every now and then an event triggers the lid from coming off slightly and the pain and darkness boils over. And recently the Holy Spirit kicked off that lid for good. All that pain and darkness surfaced and there was no way I could put back the lid on again. The Holy Spirit do not mess around…that lid was gone!

I struggled to breath, it felt like my heart was tearing in two…I pleaded with the Holy Spirit to please ask God to come and take my life…I could not bear the pain, it was overwhelming. My power to push it down was gone.

 

But let me give you a glimpse into how incredible God works.

The Holy Spirit literally forced me to walk into a church I do not know the next day, and walk up to the first friendly face I see and tell him I need someone to pray with me, now (!)  and intercede on my behalf before God. Now anyone that knows me, will realize this is the worst thing anybody can ask me to do. I am a total introvert, sitting always quietly in the corner doing my own thing and NEVER EVER just walk up to people I don’t know, let alone in an environment total foreign to me. This was going against everything I am.

But instead of doing this, I wanted to die, because this darkness and pain was so intense and overwhelming that again I was at this crossroad point in my life where I had to choose between life and death. I had a young son who I adore and a beautiful loving wife and if it was not for them chances was I was going to choose the easy road out. I was breaking down in tears continuously…and I am NOT an emotional person!

So I DID IT! I just did it in total obedience. I went to the church the Holy Spirit indicated to me, my wife and son by my side. I walked up to the first friendly face I saw and I told him what the Holy Spirit instructed me to do. He smiled and said I must go and sit, someone will come to me. A few moments later a guy, my age, walked up to me and touch my shoulder and smile. We went to a quiet corner outside and I told him my story, laying my heart bare, told him of my pain and the way the Holy Spirit is working with me now. We bend down and started praying, he laid me before God…during this moment the Holy Spirit told me that because of my obedience, He will now plea my case before God and lay my pain of the darkest corners of my heart before God. I could hear it, I could literally hear the murmurings, not words, but I could hear everything. I felt the touch of God as I did in my hospital bed and broke down in tears by grace I do not deserve. God once again began the 2nd miracle in my life, healing my pain in my heart.

The following week was extremely emotional for me as the Holy Spirit carried me through this process of cutting the pain in my heart out, piece by piece.

I thought my walk was close with God previously, but had no idea how intense it was about to become.

This God I bow down too, has become more real than anything else in this world. I am totally unprepared for how amazing and incredible His love, His holiness, His power and His kindness is.

 

So many people I talk to over the internet ask me “Why do God, if He is a good God, allow this pain and suffering in this world to continue?”

The world is a broken place. We have made our choices to abandon God and with it comes pain and suffering. God is the ultimate gentleman…He NEVER force His will on anyone. Bad things happen to even good people everyday…and you know what, it strengthens you to become a stronger person reaching greater heights. Look what happened to me…through it God strengthened me to reach heights I thought never possible in my life and I am touching many lives out there and helping people. I am a hard nut to crack and God knows it. He had plans for me…but left to my own devices that plan would never come into play. He allowed things to happened to me and come over my path. Bad things…like Job, but like God is, He turned everything around into blessings beyond believe. I still had to make the choices myself…but God gentlemanly lead me in the direction…

God wants so much the best for us, but when we abandon Him we are left alone in this broken world. The heart of God is such that He allowed that, which was most precious to Him, to be put through pain and mutilation and to die on a cross for us, just so that me and you would have direct access to God and the Holy Spirit.

My sins in this broken world prevents me from having a direct link with God, because before God nothing that has any sin or darkness can stand and live, nothing. God is pure and holy. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus, who was blameless, could He die in my place and through that allow me to talk to God and be saved. It had to be someone blameless, he had to had no sin because that is the only way He could die for ours.

God could have sent armies of angels to rescue Jesus, but this shows God’s heart…unmeasurable kindness and compassion. He did not have to do this for us…He is the Almighty God, rescuing us just by grace…which we do not deserve.

 

Now, many devoted believers don’t like it when they hear of someone like me who had such incredible experiences with God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ (I had Christ holding His hand on my shoulder at one of my toughest moments in prayer and more…)

Why me, what makes me special?

Remember Maria?…remember that between all the disciples of Jesus, SHE was the one that quietly bent down with her tears falling on Jesus feet and rubbed very expensive oil/perfume over His feet, no words, just an act of utter compassion. His disciples were not impressed about the logic that such expensive perfume was wasted. But she had a relationship with God on another level, why?…because of the AMOUNT of grace she required to be saved. Be happy and joyful if you required little grace to follow God, then you are blessed indeed. People like me (and Maria) carried so much pain and darkness in our hearts that the grace we require, is massive. This amount of grace changes you on every level and your relationship with God, is extremely intense.

 

Last week on one of the biggest radio stations in Cape Town, they aired this young woman who had a vision where Jesus Christ appeared to her and told her: “Go and tell the world, I have finished preparing all your places in heaven. I am coming to fetch you. The time is up.”

The Holy Spirit confirmed this in my heart…

Now, I know God said, no one knows the date and time, but I am making sure me and my family is ready…I cannot wait to join my Lord and Saviour!

 

I pray this article means something to you…it comes from deep within my soul.

Be blessed.

Gert Louw

Gert Louw staring

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How to use cardio to give your body a killer shape!

Filed under: BB Training & Exercises — 2 Comments
November 10, 2015

Click here to watch video “How to use cardio to obtain a killer physique!”

 

You’ve seen this many times, the thin, sinewy marathon runner and the muscled bodybuilder.

On the one end of the scale you have the marathon runner who does zero resistance training and 100% cardio training. On the other end of the scale you have the muscled bodybuilder who does 100% resistance training and zero cardio training.

Cardio, all forms of cardio, is one of the best ways to manipulate your muscle size and provide incredible aesthetic shape to the body.

If you wish to have maximum muscles well, do not do any cardio, only resistance training and if you wish a thin, sinewy physique then do just cardio and no resistance training.

But the key to a great physique is by manipulating these factors wisely.

One thing you need to understand and that is that a physique without decent muscle size will be shapeless, with clothes on and off. A physique (men and women) that produce a “wow” effect MUST have a decent amount of muscles on its frame. THAT is what will give the aesthetic shape. If you just start doing intense cardio but never build up your muscle size of your body via resistance training, you will never have a great looking body!

Now, obviously, if your dream is a classic muscled bodybuilder physique, then simply ignore cardio and concentrate ONLY on resistance training. But most of us want a fit looking, aesthetically shaped physique that looks “wow” with and without clothes.

The road to such a “wow” physique start by applying the following basic principles:

  1. Start by doing 40-50min resistance training for 4-5 days per week.(see the following link for programs and diet: https://gertlouw.com/contact-me/) It must be resistance training to failure to ignite growth and a focused diet to support the growth and training regime. Do not do cardio until such point that you have reached the desired muscle size level. Note: Do free weights instead of machines – machines bypass most support muscles and target specific muscles, thus why most people who stick to machines never really achieved a truly aesthetic shape but muscles always seems to be not balanced. Free weights = aesthetic body shape!
  2. When you have reached the desired muscle size, then start introducing 20 min cardio on top of your resistance training regime, 5-6 times per week for one month. Monitor the effect closely.
  3. By month two if your physique still appear to muscled instead of fit looking aesthetic shape, cut your resistance training sessions by roughly a third in total sets done and increase the cardio to 40 min durations for 5-6 days per week. With this amount of cardio the body WILL respond and by making size slightly smaller and give a more fit looking appearance resulting overall in a more aesthetic pleasing looking physique.
  4. Cardio can eventually be increased to an 60 min duration but preferably not more. Never drop the resistance training completely or the muscles will start disappearing. Keep resistance training (to failure) at a min of 30 for 4-5 times per week.

Note on cardio. Not all cardio are the same. If you want the best possible looking aesthetic physique then your cardio needs to be something like swimming. Jogging, Cycling and other forms of “leg” cardio will produce results but not in the class that swimming does. Swimming coupled with resistance training is well-known to create the best looking physiques.

SO fire away and make your dream body a reality!

Happy training

 

Gert Louw

How to use cardio

 

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Water speeds up fat-loss – RESEARCH EVIDENCE

Filed under: BB Supplements & Diet — 6 Comments
August 3, 2015

Water controlling APPETITE & SPEED UP FAT-LOSS

Various studies have found that water intake have a significant impact on suppressing appetite and speeding up fat-loss.

Although drinking water just before, during or immediately after eating might have a negative effect on food and nutrients absorption, there is some evidence that drinking water before or during a meal may help aid weight loss when used in conjunction with a calorie-controlled diet.[1]

GertLouw15Large

Drinking water prior to each meal may actually help in appetite suppression. Although this was believed to be the case for many years by dieticians, it was only recently that the approach was subjected to a scientific randomised controlled trial to see how much effect it had:

  • A 2008 study concluded that drinking water is associated with weight loss in overweight dieting women independent of diet and activity.[2]
  • A 2009 study concluded that consuming 500ml water prior to each main meal (combined with a hypocaloric diet), leads to greater weight loss than a hypocaloric diet alone in middle-aged and older adults. [16]
  • A 2010 study concluded that people who consumed two cups (500 mL) of water right before eating a meal ate between 75 and 90 fewer calories during that meal.[3]
  • A 2011 study conducted on middle-aged and older adults (aged ≥40 years) given 500 mL 30 minutes before meal 3 times daily for 12 weeks found that the individuals lost 2 kg body weight compared to the control group.[6]
  • A 2013 study conducted on adults 18-23 concluded that when they were given 500 mL given 3 times daily for 8 weeks they lost body weight.[7]

 

Water controlling BASE METABOLIC RATE

Various studies have found that water intake have a significant influence on the bodies base metabolic rate, the rate at which the body burns energy.

  • A 2011 study conducted on obese children concluded that water drinking on resting energy expenditure was significant.[4] Pediatricians agree that hydration in children may be optimal only in breastfed infants.[5]
  • Another study found that drinking 500 ml of water increased metabolic rate by 30% after 30-40 min with a total thermogenic response of 100 kJ (24 kcal). About 40% of the thermogenic effect originated from warming the water from 22 to 37 °C.[9]
  • However, a later study in 2006 states that approximately 500 mL 3 °C cold water caused only increase in energy expenditure by 4.5% for 60 minutes.[10]
  • Michael Boschmann, MD, and colleagues from Berlin’s Franz-Volhard Clinical Research Center tracked energy expenditures among seven men and seven women who were healthy and not overweight.

After drinking approximately 17 ounces of water, the subjects’ metabolic rates — or the rate at which calories are burned — increased by 30% for both men and women. The increases occurred within 10 minutes of water consumption and reached a maximum after about 30 to 40 minutes.

The study also showed that the increase in metabolic rate differed in men and women. In men, burning more fat fueled the increase in metabolism, whereas in women, an increased breakdown of carbohydrates caused the increase in metabolism seen.

The researchers estimate that over the course of a year, a person who increases his water consumption by 1.5 liters a day would burn an extra 17,400 calories, for a weight loss of approximately five pounds. They note that up to 40% of the increase in calorie burning is caused by the body’s attempt to heat the ingested water.

 

Water controlling DIET BEHAVIOUR

Research by Barry Popkin et al. has shown that people who drink lots of water eat more vegetables and fruits,[11] drink fewer sugary carbonated beverages, and consume fewer total calories.[12] The reason for drinking less sugary beverages would likely be that the increased water substitutes for them in the diet, quenching the thirst so that the person does not feel as much need to drink sugary beverages.

Increased water consumption, or replacement of energy-containing beverages with energy-free beverages,[13] or consumption of water-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables with a lower energy density,[14] may help in weight management.

 

Other water benefits

Apart from above significant fat-loss aspects of higher water intake, water adds to the following in the body:

  • Smoother bowel movements and less constipation.
  • Better muscle tone – the less dehydrated the muscles the better they can function and the fuller they look.
  • Water helps clean the body from waste. Healthy amounts of water will decrease colon cancer, breast cancer and bladder cancer by 70%!.
  • Water plays a significant role in kidney health. Higher water intake lessen the pressure on the kidneys especially for the bodybuilder taking in excess food and supplements.
  • Healthier skin, teeth, bones and joints.

 

How much to drink?

Everyone is preaching 8-10 glasses per day. However, there is no real science behind it. From experience by dietitians and the bodybuilding community, it is suggested not less than 4L water per day for men and 3L water per day for women. However bodybuilders should, due to the higher protein and supplement intake, drink closer to 6L water a day to make sure proper hydration for training and kidney health. Less than these suggested amounts and the body tends to hold back water.

 

The following extract from an article by Ron Kosloff:

 

Stay away from soda pop, an almost lethal poison. Listed below are several reasons why:

  • To clean a toilet, pour a can of cola into the toilet bowl and let it sit for one hour, and then flush clean.
  • The carbonic and phosphoric acid in cola removes stains from vitreous china. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers, rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in cola.
  • To clean corrosion from car battery terminals, pour a can of cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion. (One at a time, though – don’t electrocute yourself!)
  • To loosen a rusted bolt, apply a cloth soaked in cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
  • To remove grease from clothes, empty a can of cola into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent and run through the regular cycle. The cola will help loosen the grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
  • The active ingredient in cola is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis and arthritis.
  • To carry cola syrup (the concentrate), commercial trucks must use hazardous material placards reserved for highly corrosive materials.
  • The distributors of cola products have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!
  • In many states in the U.S., the highway patrol carries two gallons of cola in their vehicle to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
  • You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of cola and it will be gone in two days.

 

WHAT’S IN OUR DRINKING WATER?

Dr. Kurt Donsbach, shared with me, many years ago, that half of the heart attacks and cancers in America are caused by our drinking water.

Drinking water contains toxic levels of chlorine and fluoride. Chlorine attacks organic matter. What are you made of? Organic matter. Our drinking water is so polluted, it’s scary. Dioxins, E.coli, PCBs, DDT, human waste, trihelamethanes, just to name a few, are in our drinking water. Then add to that the conglomeration of our industrial pollutants.

It’s a fact that all of our oceans are polluted today. When PCBs and dioxins are found in the fat cells of walruses in Antarctica and the South Pole, we must realize that the whole world is now polluted.

Our lakes are polluted and are loaded with Methyl Mercury, which is a very toxic poison, so it’s not very funny that they put it in your teeth fillings. The American Dental Association continues to tell us that this is not true, but metal poisoning, we now know, causes diseases.

The main reason that chlorine is added to our drinking water is to kill bacteria and it ends up killing us! In Europe, they never use chlorine, they use oxygen purification and deionization or they use ozone purification.

Some years back, a myth was created that adding fluoride to the water would prevent tooth decay. Fluoride is a toxic chemical that is painted on children’s teeth, and, among other things, is responsible for causing cancer. The man who heavily promoted fluoride when it became law, Dr. Faulkes, passed away a few years ago. On his deathbed, he expressed great regret and said that he was sorry he ever told people to use fluoride.

Both he and Dr. Hardy Limeback from Canada had been significant promoters of fluoride and have both issued apologies concerning their support of fluoride. They stated that they did not accurately check the opposing scientific date before speaking out of behalf of fluoride. They were just not properly informed. So why do we use it?

“SOME YEARS BACK, A MYTH WAS CREATED THAT ADDING FLUORIDE TO THE WATER WOULD PREVENT TOOTH DECAY.”

When aluminum is produced, the by-product is tremendous amounts of synthetic fluoride. Since chemical and aluminum companies were spending thousands of dollars to dispose of it, why not market it to municipalities to put in the water? So, they ended up selling a poison, and at a profit. I was born with a low thyroid function and I spent a lot of time swimming at the local high school with a pool that was loaded with chlorine.

This lowered my thyroid function even more. If it weren’t for nutritional doctors, supplementation, glandular therapy and purging heavy metals from my body, I probably would have had to have my thyroid removed. Never take synthetic hormones for your thyroid!

When you do this, it displaces the natural nutrients that nourish the thyroid, for example:tyrosine, Vitamin E, essential fatty acids, protein, and manganese. Synthetic hormones actually destroy the thyroid. Chlorine and fluoride are called halogens and act as synthetic hormones. Iodine is the number one nutrient for your thyroid. What halogens do is displace iodine in your thyroid and push it out and then mimic it in your thyroid.

Therefore, you end up with chlorine and fluoride deposits in your thyroid and you can become very unhealthy. I am affiliated with a clinic here in Michigan and the Naturopathic doctor there says that people routinely come to him with poor thyroid function. My friend, Dr. David Jantz, using CRA, will diagnose their health issue as poor thyroid and they’ll say, “No, I went to a medical doctor and he did a blood test and my hormone levels are normal.”

That’s due to the fact that chlorine and fluoride have displaced the hormones and they’re floating around in your blood stream so the medical doctor and the chemist will read that your levels are appropriate when, in fact, the hormones are not in the thyroid to do the job that they were meant to do. Look around at the obesity and the hair loss and the problems we’re having today with low thyroid function.

IS ANYTHING SAFE TO DRINK?

DEHYDRATORS TO AVOID

  • commercial tea
  • coffee
  • beer
  • wine
  • distilled spirits
  • soda pop
  • white sugar
  • white rice
  • white flour
  • hydrogenated oils
  • antibiotics
  • most prescription drugs
  • chlorinated water, etc.

The question becomes, what should we drink? Never drink distilled water. Distilled water is cooked water, it’s depolarized and all the minerals are removed. So when you drink distilled water, it acts as a vacuum and, while it will pull out toxins, it will pull out everything good too.

Drink good reverse osmosis water or deionized water or good spring water that’s tested as pollutant free. You should add either colloidal minerals or Celtic sea salt to your regimen everyday. As I mentioned before, our soil is depleted of half the minerals.

There are 92 minerals in the world, micro, macro, trace, and rare earth, and they are gone due to factory farming, so you have to put minerals back into your own body. Mineral depletion in the United States is paramount. Everyone suffers from a lack of minerals. The people that don’t are the people that supplement.

Remember that in 1936 the government told us that we were missing over 22 minerals in our soil; today it’s over 45. You must take a complete mineral like colloidals or Celtic Sea Salt. People ask me how much water to drink daily. Ah, that is the question of the day, which you and only you might answer.

A decent rule of thumb is that you should drink when you are thirsty, how’s that? The same goes for food, eat when you are hungry. Your body is extremely smart isn’t it? When you do drink, just sip small amounts throughout the day, between meals, of course. Don’t drink large amounts at one time or you will just urinate it out, like big beer drinkers do.

Overhydrating is extremely taxing on your body. If you participate in sports, your perspiration and mineral loss will dictate the amount, but sip it slowly. A decent, accurate test for dehydration is when you take the thumb and index finger of one hand and you pinch a portion of the skin on the top of your other hand, pull up and then let go. If the skin snaps back to a flat position, you are well hydrated. If your skin is very slow to return to a flat position, you are dehydrated.

Always remember how important your thyroid is and have a doctor check it! If you wake in the middle of the night, drink a small amount (8 oz) of good, healthy water. Remember to consume water throughout the day.

When you are in the hospital for dehydration, you are given minerals and water for hydration, but you aren’t told that.

Some medical doctors will tell you that, if you are dehydrated, you should drink 8 to 10 glasses of water a day, but they don’t tell you to take macro and micro minerals. We now know that if you don’t have the 92 minerals found in the world, you won’t have hydration of the tissue.

 

Wish you all happy training!

Gert Louw

GertLouw13Original

 

References

  1. ab“Pre-meal water consumption for weight loss”. Australian Family Physician42 (7): 478. July 2013. PMID 23826600.
  2. Stookey JD, Constant F, Popkin BM, Gardner CD (November 2008). “Drinking water is associated with weight loss in overweight dieting women independent of diet and activity”. Obesity16 (11): 2481–8. doi:1038/oby.2008.409. PMID 18787524.
  3. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100823142929.htm
  4. Dubnov-Raz G, Constantini NW, Yariv H, Nice S, Shapira N (October 2011). “Influence of water drinking on resting energy expenditure in overweight children”. International Journal of Obesity 35 (10): 1295–300. doi:1038/ijo.2011.130.PMID 21750519.
  5. Manz F (October 2007). “Hydration in children”. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 26 (5 Suppl): 562S–569S. doi:1080/07315724.2007.10719659. PMID 17921466.
  6. Dennis EA, Dengo AL, Comber DL et al. (February 2010). “Water consumption increases weight loss during a hypocaloric diet intervention in middle-aged and older adults”. Obesity 18 (2): 300–7. doi:1038/oby.2009.235. PMC 2859815.PMID 19661958.
  7. Vij VA, Joshi AS (September 2013). “Effect of ‘water induced thermogenesis’ on body weight, body mass index and body composition of overweight subjects”. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research 7 (9): 1894–6.doi:7860/JCDR/2013/5862.3344. PMC 3809630. PMID 24179891.
  8. Muckelbauer R, Sarganas G, Grüneis A, Müller-Nordhorn J (August 2013). “Association between water consumption and body weight outcomes: a systematic review”. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 98 (2): 282–99.doi:3945/ajcn.112.055061. PMID 23803882.
  9. Boschmann M, Steiniger J, Hille U et al. (December 2003). “Water-induced thermogenesis”. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 88 (12): 6015–9. doi:1210/jc.2003-030780. PMID 14671205.
  10. Brown CM, Dulloo AG, Montani JP (September 2006). “Water-induced thermogenesis reconsidered: the effects of osmolality and water temperature on energy expenditure after drinking”. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 91 (9): 3598–602. doi:1210/jc.2006-0407. PMID 16822824.
  11. Popkin BM, Barclay DV, Nielsen SJ (December 2005). “Water and food consumption patterns of U.S. adults from 1999 to 2001”. Obesity Research 13 (12): 2146–52. doi:1038/oby.2005.266. PMID 16421349.
  12. Stookey JD, Constant F, Gardner CD, Popkin BM (December 2007). “Replacing sweetened caloric beverages with drinking water is associated with lower energy intake”. Obesity 15 (12): 3013–22. doi:1038/oby.2007.359. PMID 18198310.
  13. Dennis EA, Flack KD, Davy BM (December 2009). “Beverage consumption and adult weight management: A review”. Eating Behaviors 10 (4): 237–46. doi:1016/j.eatbeh.2009.07.006. PMC 2864136. PMID 19778754.
  14. Rolls BJ (July 2009). “The relationship between dietary energy density and energy intake”. Physiology & Behavior 97 (5): 609–15. doi:1016/j.physbeh.2009.03.011. PMC 4182946. PMID 19303887.
  15. Sichert-Hellert W, Kersting M (December 2004). “Home-made carbonated water and the consumption of water and other beverages in children and adolescents: results of the DONALD study”. Acta Paediatrica 93 (12): 1583–7. doi:1111/j.1651-2227.2004.tb00847.x. PMID 15841765.
  1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2859815/
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Starting of cutting phase

Filed under: Be MOTIVATED! — 4 Comments
July 18, 2015

Hi everyone,

The past 10 months was an incredible period of adding size and muscle to my body and have exceeded my previous best size with a good margin.

I am at the end of my building phase and my stats are: 1.75m, 91kg and about 9-10% body fat.

This is how I look at the end of my building phase:

 

Click here to view video “Start of strongman cutting phase”

 

I am starting my cutting phase on 20 July 2015 and it will continue for 3 months. The target is a level of 5% body fat.

A photo shoot and video shoot will be done at the end.

As you all know, my cutting phase is where I never train to failure but use lighter weights (anything from 20% to 40% lighter) and do higher reps per set (12 – 20 reps).

Very little rest in between sets and many superset exercises. The idea is a combination of resistance training with a degree of cardio involved (due to lighter weights and higher reps).

The fact that training is never to muscle failure also means the tendons and joints now have a chance to recover and strengthen from the punishing period of the building phase where EACH set was to absolute muscle failure.

The focus during the cutting phase is to keep the muscle size at the same level and then manipulating the body fat to a very low percentage factor. This can be very difficult because most guys (and girls) put their bodies in starvation mode (due to too little calories) and as a result lose more muscle than fat. I am following a very specific process whereby I monitor the effect my diet had on my muscle and fat reserves every 14 days and then adjust the calories accordingly, to force the diet to burn fat and not muscle for energy. I thus make sure that I stay just outside of a starvation mode which eats into the muscle size.

Wish you all many blessings and much success with your training!

Gert Louw (51 y/o)

GertLouw18small

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How to get a muscular body after 40?

Filed under: Be MOTIVATED! — 32 Comments
June 26, 2015

Click here to view video “How to get a muscular body after 40”

 

I started at age 40 with a plan to change my body, this is how I looked…with many serious health issues.

gert bfore

Fast forward to age 52, this is a photo of me taken recently.

Gert Louw BUSH small

EVERY YEAR I have managed to increase size, shape and aesthetics even past the age of 50.

Here is a short flexing vid I took with my phone in the gym locker room after training: 

Click here to play video “CHALLENGE TO ALL THE YOUNG GUYS”

 

This is my 12-point plan for obtaining a muscular body after the age of 40:

 

Point 1

Sitting on the coach with a beer in one hand, fat tummy, watching tv and generally look bad, what you don’t realize is that what you are doing is slowly dying and killing yourself. You need to look life in the eye again, you need to choose life, get up and LIVE again. You need to change yourself from the inside. Appreciate the small things in life, start caring for people in need, make right with God, start liking the person you see inside and out and respect yourself. Such life altering choices make one want to get up and LIVE and go to gym to re-invent your body. Such choices make the whole process so much easier and WORTHWHILE…

GertLouw5small

 

Point 2

Diet determines 80% of your bodybuilding success. You REALLY need to get to grip with this. If you are not ready to follow proper muscle growth diet guidelines your body will not respond even to the best training and best supplements regimes. Your results will be very mediocre at best. This is what separate the hero’s from the average…the diet!

Here is a link to a proper building diet:  https://gertlouw.com/2014/10/27/muscle-building-phase-sample-diets/

and proper cutting diet: https://gertlouw.com/2014/08/16/cutting-diet-challenges/

 

Point 3

You must align the diet for YOUR body. No two bodies re-act the same to the exact same diet. Every 14 days you need to monitor how your body reacted the past 14 day to the diet to determine if you lost muscle weight (bad), fat (good) or both (bad) and then adjust the diet accordingly in a specific fashion. It is not as difficult as it sounds, here is a link to the exact process you need to follow: https://gertlouw.com/2015/06/01/forcing-fat-loss-and-keeping-muscles-safe/

Click here to watch video “How to FORCE fat-loss”

 

Want my system fully customized for your body and goals? before-and-after-dec2016

Here is where you can signup:  https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets/

 

Point 4

Training determines 15% of your bodybuilding success.  Next to diet this is 2nd most important. You must train at least 4 times a week and not more than 5. At age above 40 the body need more time to recover and grow, I find 4 the best balance (Mon, Tues, Thurs, Frid).  Less than 4 is not advisable. It is too infrequent training and put you in danger of injury and is not conducive to muscle growth. Keep sessions never longer than 90 mins preferably 50 min.

Gert Louw LEGS CB

 

Point5

Training MUST be split as follows due the body being older than 40:

  • 3 months building phase (6-8 reps per set, EACH set to complete muscle failure)
  • 1 week rest
  • 3 month cutting phase (12 – 20 reps per set , 30% lighter weights, never to failure)
  • 1 week rest
  • repeat

If you are COMPLETELY new to training and lifting here is a video specifically for the novice to help him getting accustomed to lifting:

Click here to view video “How to do a transformation from scratch – for the novice”

 

The above training regimen allows for a serious 3 month growth spurge but place serious strain on tendons and joints which then need to recover and strengthen during the cutting phase.

You cannot start training to failure from day one – you need at least a 3-month period of gradual weekly weight and intensity increases to reach the starting point of muscle failure for the next 3 month with the building phase program. Your body need 3 months to adapt from no training to serious training. If u were 20 jump in but we are much more fragile past the age of 40 and need to be wise in our approach.

You MUST also adjust your diet for the appropriate phase:

Building phase diet:  https://gertlouw.com/2014/10/27/muscle-building-phase-sample-diets/ and proper Cutting phase diet: https://gertlouw.com/2014/08/16/cutting-diet-challenges/

Should you find that you have mastered the beginner stage of lifting and techniques, here is my building phase training program to illicit maximum muscle growth:

Click here to view video “Training Program for MAX muscle growth”

 

Point 6

During the building (growth) phase you MUST train to absolute muscle failure on each set. This is a key principle for growth. Failure means total and utter failure – mentally and physically you must not be able to lift that weight one more set. If you train with sufficient failure intensity you WILL grow! Those that do not push the limits will stay mediocre – full stop.

GertLOuw15Small

 

Point 7

Supplements makes out about 3% of your success factor in bodybuilding. If your diet is focused and training is spot on, you got most of your bases covered. However, where supplements can play a significant role is during training to protect muscles from being used as energy source and divert energy requirements to fat stored. This can be done by taking a BCAA drink with L-Glutamine during training (caffeine can be added when focus is required during training). After training L-Glutamine again with Whey protein and an apple or banana – this will spike the insulin which is crucial for max muscle growth. The next meal (within 90min after training) also plays a significant role for muscle growth.

A potent multi vitamin is a must – taken once a day after meal to support the body in this strenuous training environment.

Other highly suggested supplements for the over 40:

  • Co Enzyme Q10
  • Alpha Lipoic Acid
  • Omega 3 + 6

 

Point 8

Gym time priority needs to be very high on your list. The only things above it must be family time, church and work. Nothing else must come in the way of gym time. Early morning, late evening, whatever it takes. It can also be of great help to get a training partner with the same focus as you. It keeps you responsible to rock up at gym and can help tremendously when you are not fully motivated.

GertLouw10Small

 

Point 9

Start a facebook page  or fitness blog and post regular updates about your new achievements. Astound the world and at the same time it is an awesome tool to keep you motivated and focused. Share your success with the world  – this will be a great tool to measure and monitor your progress…but ALWAYS stay humble no matter how awesome you start to look.

Point 10

Alcohol and smoking MUST stop. You cannot built a healthy body by smoking and drinking. 500ml wine per week is the maximum and if u drink wine cut out your carbs completely during that meal (only protein and salad). The only way to obtain a serious 6-pack is by correct diet and cutting out alcohol and smoking.

 

Point 11

You must get your natural testosterone levels tested every 2 years when above the age of 40. If you need replacement therapy do NOT say no. Testosterone is a critical hormone for the man to prevent depression, low energy levels and supports healthy muscle size, fat loss and good health (heart).

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Point 12

DO NOT HAVE AVERAGE STANDARDS.

Choose a role model…the BEST role model out there that has the shape and size you want to achieve (or even surpass). Burn this image into your mind.

Before and during every training session call up this image and visualize the muscle you are training and the shape and size you want. With each contraction visualize how you want that muscle to look. Visualization  is a powerful tool to focus the brain and keep you motivated. Many, many bodybuilders believe that it is much more than that, and that the constant visualization and mind muscle connection have a direct impact on growth and shape of the muscle. Either way, it is a great tool to keep you focussed on your goals.

I NEVER accepted average and since age 40 I am visualizing with each training session my goal for shape and size of the muscle exercised. It focusses me, motivates me and every year my shape is better and more aesthetic.

Don’t be average – don’t reach for the sky, reach for the stars!

Follow these guidelines and you WILL reach success. But only YOU can make it happen and you have to take that first step and start climbing the ladder.

 

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Happy training

Gert Louw

I have a comprehensive customised & holistic blueprint system developed for guys over 40 to get that dream body. This system is based upon my 12 point system and regime I am following for the past 12 years to create the environment for growth, fat-loss and prevention of injuries and safe training while ensuring the body is in peak health…fully customised and widely considered as the definitive approach for the over 40 guy to transform. Everything addressed in detail – from supplements to diets to training to building and cutting phases, etc. Here is where you can signup:  https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets/

GertLouw2c

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